2015 Phillip Island MotoGP Results | Australia GP Recap

October 18, 2015

MotoGP No Spoiler Results – 2015 Phillip Island MotoGP Results

Start of 2015 Phillip Island MotoGP

Only two riders are capable of earning the 2015 MotoGP title – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi and teammate Jorge Lorenzo – but this didn’t slow the others Sunday during the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Four riders battled throughout the 27-lap race, and the winner would not be decided until turn 10 of the final lap. This is when Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez passed Lorenzo for the lead, and held the top position to the checkered flag. Marquez, who also earned Saturday his 30th MotoGP pole at Phillip Island, would finish 0.249 of a second ahead of Lorenzo. Earning third after some serious dicing with nine-time World Champion Rossi was Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone.

The talk of the race was after the Italian Iannone took out a seagull while in the lead early in the race. But the Ducati GP15 pilot quickly regained his composure, and remained up front for the entire GP. He would beat Rossi to the final podium position by a mere 0.128 of a second. The top-four riders would all finish within a second of each other.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi

Due to the factory Yamaha YZR-M1 pilots’ finishes, Rossi’s 18-point lead over Lorenzo was depleted to just 11 with two rounds remaining.

The majority of the excitement was in the Repsol Honda garage, though. This was Marquez’s first MotoGP victory at Phillip Island (he crashed out while in the lead last season, and was disqualified for a blotched pit in 2013), and he is now tied with teammate Dani Pedrosa for 50-career GP wins.

Marc Marquez says: ”It was a really fun race ‒ certainly one to remember ‒ and it had different phases to it. At the beginning there was a lot of overtaking, then when I passed Jorge it seemed that I was breaking away. However, I overheated the front tyre and had to slow my pace. At the end I overtook Iannone and Valentino and I had a great last lap; I don’t know where I pulled that time out from, but it was what made the difference for us! I want to thank all the team, Honda and all the fans. After a difficult season it’s always nice to finish the year with some victories!”

2015 Phillip Island MotoGP Results – Recap

Starting from second on the grid, Iannone got to turn one first, followed by Lorenzo and Marquez. Lorenzo moved into first at turn eight, just to lose it again to Iannone on the second lap. But at the entrance to turn four, Iannone hit a seagull, and moved back to second.

Marquez then got into the mix, and he, Iannone and Lorenzo swapped the lead a few times. As for Rossi, he was quickly up front after a seventh-place start. He overtook Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and moved into fourth on lap four.

Lorenzo pulled away as Iannone, Rossi and Marquez battled. These three would eventually catch up with Lorenzo with 10 laps to go, and all four battled to the checkered flag. Iannone’s straight-away speeds on the Ducati was unbelievable, but every time he got to the front he would be passed once again by the others.

During the final lap, Marquez passed Iannone and then Lorenzo on turn 10. The 22-year-old Spaniard was able to keep the lead to beat his teammate. Rossi did everything possible to earn third, but he couldn’t get pass Iannone. Regardless, Rossi, who started his 328th GP race Sunday (tied with Loris Capirossi for most starts) was able to keep his championship hopes more than alive.

Ducati’s Andrea Iannone

Pedrosa, who won at Motegi last week, would earn fifth ahead of Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales and the top satellite pilot, LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow. This was Vinales’ best MotoGP finish.

LCR Honda’s Jack Miller took the top Open class finish before his home crowd with 15th As for the sole American in MotoGP, Aspar Honda’s Nicky Hayden, who joins Ten Kate Honda in 2016 World Superbike, suffered a DNF due to technical issues.

Amazingly, there were no crashes during the 2015 Australian Grand Prix. The only rider to crash all weekend was Smith (free practice four). Due to Lorenzo and Rossi’s finishes, Yamaha has now scored its 37th Manufacturers’ title, the 14th in premier class.

The 2015 MotoGP Championship now heads directly to Sepang in Malaysia for the penultimate round.

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